War Criminals Just Had "Poor Judgement"

During the Nuremberg trials at the end of World War II, the United States (along with Russia, Great Britain and France) laid down a new legal precedent. They made it clear that a country's leaders who issued illegal orders and the goons who carried out those orders were not the only war criminals.

They said those in the legal profession who justified those illegal orders and gave them the cloak of judicial respectability were also guilty of war crimes. But then those were Germans. Evidently this precedent doesn't apply if you're an attorney justifying the illegal actions of the United States government.

Bush administration Justice Department attorneys John Yoo (currently a Berkley law professor) and Jay Bybee (currently a federal judge), wrote memos for President Bush giving him the authority to violate American and international law by ordering the torture of prisoners believed to be muslim insurgents.

Yoo even went further. He told Justice Department Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) investigators that a president not only had the authority to order the torturing of prisoners, but could even order an entire village of people to be massacred! That is an incredible mis-reading of the president's constitutional powers. It is obvious that Yoo considered the president to be above the laws that apply to all other citizens.

But the OPR did not accept the weak, unethical and obviously wrong advice that Bybee and Yoo offered the president to justify ordering the torture of prisoners. They concluded "John Bybee committed professional misconduct when he acted in reckless disregard of his duty to exercise independent legal judgement and render thorough, objective, and candid legal advice."

They were even harder on Yoo saying, "John Yoo committed intentional professional misconduct when he violated his duty to exercise independent legal judgement and render thorough, objective, and candid legal advice." In the original report, the OPR recommended the two men be referred to their state bar associations for possible disciplinary actions.

But in perhaps his most cowardly decision since assuming office, President Obama said last year he doesn't want any prosecutions for crimes these men (war criminals) did. He said he was afraid it would have a chilling effect on attorney's advising the president. That was a ridiculous position to take. The only effect it would have is to convince government attorney's they could not give advice they knew to be illegal.

Following the president's wishes, senior Justice Department attorney David Margolis toned the report down, and said the two men had only exhibited "poor judgement". That means these two war criminals will get off with no punishment for their dastardly and reprehensible conduct.

I can't help but believe that if these men had been German attorney's giving that same advice to Hitler, they would have been prosecuted as war criminals. They deserve nothing less just because they were giving illegal advice to an American president.

(The above picture is from the Nuremberg trial of judges who helped implement the illegal and immoral laws dictated by Hitler.)